3 Count: Hot, Hot News

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1: Yahoo, Singapore Press Holdings Settle Copyright Lawsuit

First off today, Chun Han Wong at the Wall Street Journal reports that Yahoo has reached a settlement with Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), Singapore’s largest newspaper group, over Yahoo’s reuse of content owned by SPH.

SPH sued Yahoo in 2011 claiming that the search company “substantially reproduced” SPH news on Yahoo’s Singapore website. Yahoo countersued alleging that their content was appearing on various SPH websites but dropped that lawsuit. Yahoo has now settled the case and is paying an unspecified amount of damages and has agreed to an injunction against further infractions.

Yahoo initially denied any wrongdoing but now says it regrets the actions by “a small number” of its employees. Yahoo also notes that the employees involved have either been disciplined or terminated.

2: How a Fox News Lawsuit Might Impact the Future of News

Next up today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that media monitoring company TVEyes has responded to a lawsuit filed by Fox News and is asking the judge to dismiss it, claiming that Fox News’ claims are inadequate and doesn’t spell out what they allegedly infringed.

Fox News sued the service alleging that TVEyes, which monitors media to find desired keywords and provide short clips to customers, is committing “hot news misappropriation” and free-riding on their reporting. TVEyes, in its motion to dismiss, disputes this saying that not only does Fox fail to outline specific infringements but also claims that it is not a competitor to Fox News, making the claim inappropriate.

The hot news misappropriation claim harkens back to a 1918 lawsuit over World War 1 claim involving competing news agencies battling one another for news from the front lines. The claim has been upheld in some recent rulings, but is a very narrow exemption as copyright law does not extend to facts, which is what “hot news” covers.

3: Microsoft Ditches Anti-Piracy Partner After Embarrassing DMCA Takedowns

Finally today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that, shortly after it was revealed that Microsoft had filed DMCA notices with Google over a series of non-infringing URLs, including ones on Microsoft’s own website, the software giant has announced that it is ending its relationship with the anti-piracy outfit involved, LeakID.

The incident was only the latest problem with LeakID. Previously the company had sent DMCA notices on behalf of Microsoft against sites such as the BBC, TechCrunch, Rotten Tomatoes and more. However, after the latest incident, Microsoft decided to terminate its agreement with LeakID effective immediately.

Microsoft is one of the most active filers of DMCA notices with Google, having asked the search giant to remove some 10 million infringing URLs.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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